Today’s post about how Twitter can actually help you finish your book is from award-winning author A.B. Funkhauser, whom coincidently I met on Twitter!

Finish that WIP:

A friend recently asked me to fly to England and finish his work in progress (WIP). He was kidding, of course. I had just typed “The End” on a manuscript that had joyously taken up fifteen months of my life, and somewhere between the celebratory Chablis and Chardonnay, I managed to post the jolly news on all of my platforms.

“How did you do it?” was what my multi-published English friend really wanted to know. So, I told him.

About six months ago, it had become clear to me that while I was enjoying the new WIP, I was also enjoying the good life that included blogging, public speaking, book fairs and, something I really love, Twitter hashtag games for writers. Enjoyable as all of this was, I wasn’t getting the lead out. I wasn’t finishing the WIP.

Something had to be done.

Hashtag games I find, have the very positive effect of generating MORE writing if applied correctly. Post lines to a theme from a WIP on an appointed day, and if they strike gold, other players hit the *like* and/or very coveted RT button. RTs and *likes* both have the desired effect of producing a dopamine-like rush that feels GREAT, but also more 1 liners as fast as the writer can craft them. It’s the desire to “show and tell” that makes this happen.

I remember, well, overcoming acute shyness in kindergarten with the introduction of this amazing communication tool. Why not apply the same discipline to overcome a similar but different type of inertia?

And so, it was really with “show and tell” in mind that I salvaged a little-used Twitter hashtag (you can do that, you know) called #FinishThatWip, and made the following declaration with this snappy little blip ad:

Commitment works

Publicly committed, I had no choice but to make good on my promise. Every day, whether I wrote 5,000, 500 or 50 words, I would post the very first line typed—usually over the morning coffee—confident in the belief that if I did so, I would actually finish the thing. Other writers joined in, some likening the experience to NaNoWriMo.

It took forever, but I did it. I finished it, and I still managed to live the good life!

Try it, and let me know how it goes at #FinishThatWip

Good luck, and good writing.

A. B. Funkhauser is a Toronto fiction writer, currently editing her third novel Shell Game, which she began in 2015 during NaNoWriMo. She also hosts #Thurds Words on Twitter, a hashtag game for writers appearing every Thursday. Find her (and #FinishThatWip) on Twitter @iamfunkhauser

At last found, he is delivered to Weibigand Brothers Funeral Home, a ramshackle establishment peopled with above average eccentrics, including boozy Enid, a former girlfriend with serious denial issues. With her help and the help of a wise cracking spirit guide, Heuer will try to move on to the next plane. But before he can do this, he must endure an inept embalming, feral whispers, and Enid’s flawed recollections of their murky past.Geo Buy Link: http://myBook.to/heuerlostandfoundWebsite: www.abfunkhauser.comAmazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/abfunkhauser

Scooter Nation (2016)

Aging managing director Charlie Forsythe begins his work day with a phone call to Jocasta Binns, the unacknowledged illegitimate daughter of Weibigand Funeral Home founder Karl Heinz Sr. Alma Wurtz, a scooter bound sextenarian, community activist, and neighborhood pain in the ass is emptying her urine into the flower beds, killing the petunias. Jocasta cuts him off, reminding him that a staff meeting has been called. Charlie, silenced, is taken aback: he has had no prior input into the meeting and that, on its own, makes it sinister.

The second novel in the Unapologetic Lives Series, Scooter Nation takes place two years after Heuer Lost and Found. This time, funeral directors Scooter Creighton and Carla Moretto Salinger Blue take center stage as they battle conflicting values, draconian city by-laws, a mendacious neighborhood gang bent on havoc, and a self-absorbed fitness guru whose presence shines an unwanted light on their quiet Michigan neighborhood.Geo Buy Link: http://myBook.to/ScooterNationWalmart:http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scooter-Nation/53281677Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamfunkhauserYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Ztg_M3NvIJV4hDzyXdf9g

Shell Game(2017)

Carlos the Wonder Cat lives free, traveling from house to house in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Known by everyone, his idyllic existence is threatened when a snarky letter from Animal Control threatens to punish kitty owners who fail to keep their pets indoors. The $5,000 fine / loss of kitty to THE MAN is draconian and mean, but before Team Carlos can take steps, he is kidnapped by a feline fetishist sex cult obsessed with the films of eccentric Pilsen Güdderammerüng. Stakes are high. Even if Carlos escapes their clutches, can he ever go home?

“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller,Deep End of the Ocean